 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
| A report was made to the General Assembly of 1912 and a bill offered carrying an appropriation of $1,000,000 for the acquisition of land and the erection of a building, which, in addition to the armory, was to contain the general State officers. This bill was amended to the extent of eliminating the State office feature and reducing the amount to $600,000, but was lost in the Senate by one vote. Again the regiment was disappointed in its efforts to obtain the recognition to which it was entitled, but undaunted by defeat and realizing that perseverance must bring success, another bill was offered in the General Assembly at the session of 1914, and Colonel Harry C. Jones and his officers, with the assistance of General Charles F. Macklin and his Honor James H. Preston, Mayor of Baltimore, again stormed the lawmaking body and proved the claims of this regiment so strongly and convincingly that their efforts were successful and a bill carrying an appropriation of $200,000 for the purchase of a site and towards the construction of a new armory was passed, and the State finally committed to the undertaking. This bill provided for a Building Commission consisting of the Governor, State Treasurer, State Comptroller and Adjutant-General of the State, the Mayor of Baltimore, the Colonel, Lieutenant-Colonel and three Majors of the Fourth Infantry, M. N. G., who were given full authority to purchase the site and make the necessary preliminary contracts for the proposed armory. This commission has selected as the site of the Fourth's future home one of the most prominently located blocks in Baltimore, situated at the northeast corner of Maryland and North avenues, fronting on North avenue two hundred and forty-five feet, with a depth of three hundred and three feet to Twentieth street, thereby providing land enough for an armory containing the largest drill surface south of New York and facilities both for military work and the comfort and convenience of the members of the Regiment, and giving to the City of Baltimore a Convention Hall which will greatly advance its claims as the Convention City of the country. The General Assembly at its session in 1916 will be asked to provide the funds for the erection of the edifice, which will be not only a model armory, but an evidence of the confidence which the citizens of Maryland have in the Fourth Infantry as a part of its citizen soldiery. I'uge Fifty-sei-cn |